Wristcutters

9:15 PM June 3rd, Neptune; 4:15 PM June 4th, Neptune

Bravo! Watch out for Goran Dukic, writer and director of Wristcutters. It’s an assured debut and the kind of script I love seeing unfold. The story of Zia (Patrick Fugit – the kid from Almost Famous ) after he cuts his wrist and finds himself in a purgatory reserved for suicides. It’s a base world where, as Zia tells us, “Everything is the same here, it’s just a little worse.” So he gets a job at a pizza parlor and moves through a gray existence until he finds out that his ex-girlfriend committed suicide as well. Dragging a Russian musician (poured beer onto his guitar while on stage), and a girl looking for the People In Charge (overdose) they embark on a roadtrip across the dusty wasteland of purgatory looking for his girl.

The screenplay is the kind of story I aspire to write. The bleak and overexposed world is well realized. I like how Dukic has woven a tapestry where the sameness is different, the audacious normalcy of every shot turned into something fantastical by the context of the story. And Tom Waits is the mentor character. How is his acting? Come on - he’s Tom Waits! There are some strange bits: Will Arnet plays pretty much the same character he plays in Arrested Development, Gob, except that in the land of suicides, a failed magician can become a messiah.
In a land where no one can smile, I found a lot to smile at. Like the scene where Zia and a girl find a romantic beach at night. They spend a romantic evening wandering a beach, talking… you know, only to wake up the next morning to find the beach covered in used condoms and syringes.
The acting is good, with a very strong performance by Patrick Fugit in the lead role. It’s not a perfect movie, but as a debut especially it gives me great hope that fresh voices get their movies made. Now I just want to see it get the distribution it deserves so I can see that fresh voices can get distribution for their movies.